When it comes to the Joe Burrow era with the Cincinnati Bengals, the Minnesota Vikings play a prominent role in the beginning stages. It was the Vikings who the Bengals beat 27-24 in Week 1 of the 2021 season, Burrow’s first game from a torn ACL, when Burrow completed a gutsy fourth-down pass in the final minute of overtime to set up a game-winning field goal by rookie kicker Evan McPherson. That was also the game where Ja’Marr Chase caught his first career touchdown pass.
In Week 15 of the 2023 season,
Jake Browning, starting for Burrow while being sidelined with a wrist injury, led the Bengals back from a 17-3 deficit to a 27-24 win in overtime. Browning’s 3rd&9 completion to Tyler Boyd in overtime set up McPherson’s game-winning field goal.
Browning was cut by the Vikings early in his career. Now, he has the opportunity to beat them again. This time, it would come in Minneapolis.
This will be the Bengals’ first game without Joe Burrow this season, who had successful toe surgery on Friday after sustaining a turf toe injury in the Bengals’ Week 2 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The hope is that Burrow can return in December. Until then, Browning is more than ready to lead this Bengals team to where they want to go this season.
The 2025 Bengals have a roster that is built to win in the Playoffs. They’re built to compete for a Lombardi Trophy. Sunday, we’ll see if Jake Browning can keep them in that conversation for the next three months.
Let’s look at Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz and four other key players to watch on the Vikings on Sunday.
Quarterback: #11: Carson Wentz — 6’5” 237 lbs. 10th Season North Dakota State
If you’re wondering where Carson Wentz has been since his 2020 season with the Philadelphia Eagles, he’s been in a lot of places. The Vikings are, actually, his fifth team in the last five seasons.
Last year, Wentz was with the Kansas City Chiefs and made one start. Bengals fans remember that one start well… for all the wrong reasons. It was in Week 18 when the Chiefs played at the Denver Broncos. If the Chiefs, who were resting most of their starters, had won, the Bengals would have been in the Playoffs. Unfortunately, the Chiefs were shutout 38-0 with Wentz not getting the offense going whatsoever.
Wentz is not the player he was in 2017, when he was named a Pro Bowler and was a front-runner for the NFL MVP. Ever since his knee injury in Week 14 that season, he’s never been the same quarterback. He played full seasons in 2019 and 2021, throwing for over 3,500 yards in both seasons, but he’s bounced around the league since 2021 and hasn’t found any stable starting quarterback job since.
This is a former No. 2 overall draft pick back in 2016 who has played a lot of football in the NFL and his entire career. The Bengals have to take him seriously because he is capable.
Four Players to Watch on the Vikings
1. #18: Wide Receiver, Justin Jefferson — 6’1’ 195 lbs. LSU
No secrets here. Jefferson is an elite wide receiver, and he and Ja’Marr Chase are easily the two best wide receivers in the NFL.
The 2022 Offensive Player of the Year, who is also a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time First-Team All-Pro, Jefferson is the fifth player in NFL history with three seasons of 100 receptions and 1,500 receiving yards. Also on that list are Andre Johnson, Marvin Harrison, Antonio Brown, and Julio Jones.
Jefferson is off to a slow start this season with just seven receptions for 125 yards and a touchdown through two games. It will be interesting to see how he and Carson Wentz fare on Sunday because Jefferson is an explosive play waiting to happen on every snap. He is, currently, the all-time leader in receiving yards per game at 95.7. Not to mention, he led the NFL in 2024 with 28 receptions of 20+ yards.
2. #87: Tight End, T.J. Hockenson — 6’5’ 248 lbs. Iowa
The Bengals struggle covering tight ends, and Hockenson is certainly one of the better tight ends in the NFL.
With the Vikings still without Jordan Addison due to a suspension, expect Hockenson to be a big part of their offensive game plan on Sunday. Even with only four receptions for 27 yards through two games, Hockenson is still a player the Bengals can’t overlook on the Vikings offense.
Hockenson is a two-time Pro Bowler, and he has really broken out since coming to the Vikings in a trade with the Detroit Lions in November of 2022. In 37 games with the Vikings, Hockenson has 200 receptions for 1,961 yards and eight touchdowns.
A former John Mackey Award winner, given to the best tight end in college football, Hockenson was the No. 8 overall pick by the Lions in the 2019 NFL Draft.
3. #97: Defensive Tackle, Javon Hargrave — 6’2’ 307 lbs. South Carolina State
A two-time Pro Bowler playing for his fourth team, Hargrave is a menace in the interior of the defensive line. Now, he’s off to a great start with the Vikings with two sacks and two tackles for loss through two games.
Hargrave is no stranger to the biggest stages in the NFL, having started in both Super Bowl LVII and Super Bowl LVIII with the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers.
He is coming off a 2024 season that ended after three games with a triceps injury, but this is a player with 130 games played and 11 starts in his first nine seasons. Hargrave entered this season with 380 career tackles, 55 tackles for loss, 45.5 sacks, 79 quarterback hits, eight passes defended, four forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, and a fumble return for a touchdown.
4. #0: Linebacker, Ivan Pace Jr. — 5’10’ 236 lbs. Cincinnati
A standout linebacker with the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2022, Pace has gone from undrafted to one of the most underrated linebackers in the NFL.
How does a player, who was named a unanimous First-Team All-American in 2022, who had 137 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, and three forced fumbles, go undrafted? Not to mention, Pace was a finalist for the Butkus and Chuck Bednarik Awards.
Pace is coming off a 2024 season where, after missing the first six games, he had a career-high three sacks and career-high seven tackles for loss. He also had an interception and a fumble returned for a touchdown.
In his rookie season in 2023, Pace became just the second rookie since 199 to have 13 tackles, a sack, and an interception. The only other rookie since 1994 to accomplish that? DeMeco Ryans.
Through two games this season, Pace has 14 tackles and one tackle for loss.
Head Coach: Kevin O’Connell (4th season, 35-18) – 40 years old
Regarded as a quarterback whisperer, O’Connell has gotten off to a great start as the Vikings’ head coach despite instability at the quarterback position. But his work with Sam Darnold in 2024 earned him a multi-year contract extension with the Vikings this past January.
The Vikings went 14-3 in 2024, with Sam Darnold taking over at quarterback after J.J. McCarthy went down with a torn ACL in the preseason. O’Connell became the first head coach since at least 1950 to win at least 14 games in a season where the quarterback, in that case Darnold, was in his first season with the team. In addition, the Vikings were 9-1 in one-possession games and finished in the top 10 in both scoring and passing yards per game.
O’Connell helped the Vikings stay afloat in 2023 despite having four different quarterbacks start a game. After Kirk Cousins’s season ended in Week 8 due to a torn Achilles, the Vikings still managed to have a winning record heading into Week 15.
Prior to Minnesota, O’Connell was the Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator from 2020-2021. We all know how the 2021 season ended, and O’Connell was instrumental in Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp having career years.
O’Connell was also the offensive coordinator in 2019 with Washington, after serving as their quarterbacks coach for the previous two seasons. He began his NFL career as the quarterbacks coach for the Cleveland Browns in 2015.
As a player, O’Connell ranks in the top five at San Diego State in completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. He was drafted in the third round of the 2008 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, backing up Matt Cassel after Tom Brady was injured in Week 1.
Offensive Coordinator: Wes Phillips (4th season) – 46 years old
Phillips brings a plethora of experience into his fourth season with the Vikings. In 2024, Sam Darnold ranked fifth in the NFL with 4,319 passing yards and 35 touchdown passes while ranking sixth with a 102.5 passer rating. Justin Jefferson was second in receiving yards with 1,533 while also ranking sixth with 103 receptions, and Aaron Jones set a career high with 255 rushing attempts and 1,138 rushing yards.
Prior to Minnesota, Phillips was Kevin O’Connell’s tight ends coach and pass game coordinator from 2019-2021, which followed five seasons as the tight ends coach in Washington. He spent seven seasons on the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive coaching staff, with three-plus seasons with his father, Wade Phillips, as the Cowboys’ head coach. Phillips is also the grandson of Bum Phillips, who was the head coach of the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints.
Defensive Coordinator: Brian Flores (3rd season) – 44 years old
A four-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots, including as a 23-year-old scouting assistant in 2004, Flores knows defense. He’s been a defensive coach since 2011, spending eight seasons in New England.
The Vikings’ defense in 2024 led the NFL with 24 interceptions, while also leading the NFL in passes defensed, opponent fourth-down conversion percentage, and interceptions per pass attempt. They also tied for the NFL lead with 33 takeaways. All of this while the Vikings had 12 defensive players in their first season on the roster.
Flores came to Minnesota after spending the 2022 season as a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was also the head coach of the Miami Dolphins for three seasons, going 24-25. The Dolphins had winning seasons in 2020 and 2021, their first back-to-back winning seasons since 2002-2003.
Special Teams Coordinator: Matt Daniels (4th season) – 35 years old
Daniels has helped long snapper Andrew De Paola to three straight Pro Bowls, the first long snapper in NFL history to accomplish the feat.
Prior to joining Minnesota, Daniels served as the assistant special teams coach for two seasons each with the Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Colorado in 2017.
Daniels played college football at Duke, where he was a Second-Team All-American safety in 2011. He played in 46 games with 324 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, four interceptions, seven forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, and 27 pass breakups.
Keys to the Game
1. Run the ball.
If there’s ever a game for the Bengals’ run game going, this is it. Chase Brown is fully capable of being a difference maker at running back, and he showed that last year as one of the most explosive running backs in the second half of the 2024 season.
The Vikings rank second-to-last in the NFL, allowing 168.5 rushing yards per game. There’s no excuse for the Bengals not to run the ball and run it better than they have through the first two weeks.
2. Limit the turnovers.
Admittedly, the Bengals got away with turning the ball over three times against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. They can’t keep doing that. Taking care of the football goes a long way, especially in games where both teams will be facing adversity with starting backup quarterbacks.
Browning will be aggressive with his throws, but he has to be smart with them. The Vikings’ defense is opportunistic, so protecting the ball will go a long way towards deciding this game.
3. Opportunistic on defense
Speaking of opportunistic defense, the Bengals’ defense has been just that through the season’s first two weeks. They have four interceptions through two weeks, and they all have been huge plays that have changed the momentum of the games.
If Trey Hendrickson can get pressure on Carson Wentz, and he may be going up against a backup Vikings left tackle if Christian Darrisaw can’t go, that’s going to force Wentz into making some ill-advised throws. This Bengals defense is a work in progress, but they are opportunistic. That can be crucial in a game like the one that can unfold on Sunday.
4. Don’t play down to your level of competition
Not only are the Vikings starting a backup quarterback, they’re also starting a backup running back and center. This is an opportunity for the Bengals’ defense to take a step forward this season. They can’t play down to their level of competition.
The Vikings have an elite group of skill players even without running back Aaron Jones on Sunday, but the opportunities to make it hard for the Vikings to move the ball on offense will be there for the Bengals defense.
Score Prediction: Bengals 23 – Vikings 20
The last two games between the Bengals and Vikings have both been decided 27-24 in overtime, with Evan McPherson connecting on game-winning field goals.
This game will be close on Sunday. These are two teams that know each other well for being in opposite conferences. With injuries on both sides, this game could be a physical, grind-it-out battle.
Cincinnati is built to win those games this season. They already won that kind of game in Cleveland Week 1.
In Super Bowl LVI, Week 1 of the 2022 season, and the AFC Championship in 2022, the Bengals lost 23-20. Sunday, that changes. Just like the two games against the Vikings, Evan McPherson will be good from 37 yards as time expires to lift the Bengals to 3-0 for the first time since 2015.
